NariusV's page

The next adventure deck is coming soon to my table, and as an Ezren player I'm reconsidering the use of this basic spell.

Arcane Armor is a spell in the Basic Set, with the traits MAGIC, ARCANE, and BASIC.

It's check to acquire is Intelligence or Arcane 4, which is doable even for those without Intelligence or Arcane skill, so it's use during an adventure as a throwaway defense is likely for most characters at some point in their adventuring career.

Now, it's Power is that it reduces Combat damage by 2 when discarded, and without the Arcane trait it must be banished. If an Arcane check of 4 succeeds it can be recharged instead.

What happened to Ezren in my solitaire play through was that I did use this spell several times to reduce damage from a blade trap that would have been game over without it. Ezrens ability to examine the top card of his deck and put it into his hand if it is a spell after playing a spell with the Arcane trait, combined with a low life total, and high recharge potential meant that I was able to cycle my deck well enough to chain cast Arcane Armor against a trap that I kept failing against until I was able to find the card I needed to deal with it.

A question I have is what about combat?

Arcane Armor is a defensive spell particularly suited to reducing combat damage.

I wanted to clarify the rulings on damage dealt by monsters after combat because of this. Generally Ezren is going to use a a spell to deal with most encounters. For monsters, it will almost always be a combat spell. Is this a problem for Ezren? Let's find out in the following example.

Let's say Ezren has a hand full of items and some allies, none of which will help his in a combat with a monster, along with Force Missile and Arcane Armor.

He decides his best chance of success to beat the monster is to cast Force Missile, but his check fails to succeed by 2.

Is it true that Ezren must take 2 damage because he is not allowed to play a second spell (Arcane Armor), after failing a combat check where he used a spell?

This evening I played the Burnt Offerings adventure for the second time. The first time my Character Died during the Local Hero's Scenario getting caught in the woods with a vigilant Specter.

A couple things to share.

One, I have changed my mind about damage resistance and armor, since without that I would have lost about five or six times during the course of play so far. Up until this play through I had always taken so much damage that only a complete 'reduce all damage to zero' would have helped. Now that I have encountered more enemies that deal damage before the encounter, including Villans which can be met multiple times, I see the need for damage reduction.

Two, Not having at least 2 solid attacks available in hand can spell an automatic loss for Ezren when he faces opponents that have multiple combat checks. Due to this several times I passed on the 'You may attempt to close this location' when defeating a henchman, in order to end the turn and restock cards on hand.

Three, I have carried the Sages journal since the beginning, and I have decided to keep it. The extra d4 proved useful numerous times.

I realized that without very solid recharge abilities, Ezren ends up killing himself by playing his spells, which he needs to use in order to accomplish anything, especially in combat. Since casting spells is more common for him than any other action, it outweighs most other considerations. Due to that I pumped Intelligence and the Recharge ability, so Now He can auto-recharge most of his staple spells.

Four. Losing Combats means dying. I started with 6 attack spells, Invisibility, and Cure for the first few Scenarios. This allowed some useful healing, and ensured I almost always had a decent attack on hand for those monsters. The cure was useful even though I had to banish it after casting, since I could just pick it up again before the next Scenario until I found another Arcane spell which replaced it. That ended up being Detect Magic which I kept that for quite a while until I found Acid Arrow, which stayed on until Recently.

My strategy for dealing with the Treacherous Cave was to clear out the other two locations first. That way when I trapped the Villain there and beat it, I would not have to roll the impossible check, since at that point the scenario would be over. Heading in there was a one way trip. Luckily I managed to pull it out.

In the last battle with the final Villain in Thistletop Delve, I was down to zero cards in my deck, six in hand, none of which was the Sages Journal. It came down to the very last die roll. T needed to get a total of 14. Without that I would die, and have come all the way to the bitter end for nothing.

Ezren focused and cast Force Missile. 1d12 + 2d4 + 2 + 2

I started with the 4, and then rolled the d4. 2, and 4.

That gave me a 10.

I picked up the d12, anything less than a 4 and it would be game over.

I watched the die roll slowly across the table, teeter over, and land on 4.

Just Barely enough to claim victory. Ezren picked up the Sihedron Medallion and headed back to Sandpoint.

Adds Chosen:
+ 2 Intelligence
+ 1 to Recharge
+1 Item Card.

Final Decklist
Weapon: Mace
Items: Sihedron Medallion, Amulet of Life, Sage's Journal, Token of Remembrance
Allies: Troubadour, Burglar, Acolyte
Spells: Lightning Touch(2), Force Missile(2), Acid Arrow, Augury, Glibness, Invisibility

I encountered a slashing blade trap four times in a row, having to re-shuffle it into the deck and to my dismay, encounter it again, and again, and again, with no chance of passing the check. I survived the constant assault by using Arcane Armor, then Amulet of Life, then sinply taking it on the chin. Finally with the Troubadour's aid I was finally able to pass that nasty thing.

GG! Fun game. I have started another solitare run with Seelah. It should be an interesting change not being able to retain items. However, being able to boost +die and +d6 by burning a blessing seems very powerful.

I like this game even more having played through the fist adventure of the adventure path. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Cheers everyone :)